


The Drowned

by SilverSie



Series: Strange Magic Week 2016 [4]
Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Character Death, Drowning, F/M, Strange Magic Week 2016, Suicide, there's nothing happy about this i'm sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7864090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverSie/pseuds/SilverSie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Forest's son, A River's daughter.</p><p>A very small drabble inspired by The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) by The Decemberists.</p><p>For Strange Magic Week Day 4: Dark Fantasy AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Drowned

**Author's Note:**

> (song of choice - Together by The xx)

With her first footsteps into the water, it calms. The harsh waves recede as if to respect their presence, as if she pushes them herself.

To him, she turns, her hand extended in a silent invitation. And though the water looks rabid and hungry for his bones, he accepts and steps into the river after her. The water surges and pulls at him, but her hands are an anchor and they steady them both.

She draws close to him, ear pressing against a heart that no longer held the beat of The Forest within it. That part of him was already gone.

He presses a kiss to the top of her head, the flowers in her hair now nothing but a memory. Now all he can smell is the blood and the salt.

They stay like this for a moment— the beginning of their goodbye—until he speaks. “I’m sorry I pulled you into this.”

“Shh,” she gently shushes him, arms pulling tight around his back, “You saved me. Everything that we had was perfect and I don’t regret a moment.” She pulls back to look up at him, earthen eyes meeting the sky.

The look he returns her is somber. “They’ll never stop. And neither will she.”

“I know,” her voice is still soothing but he can see the sadness. Her hand reaches to caress his face, her skin pale against his gray.

“This is a better way.”

She nods, “I know.” The water swells slightly.

Something in him becomes desperate and his hands cradle her head, bringing their foreheads together. “Marianne, I love you. I love you with all that I am, you know that?”

She has to bite back a breathy sob, “I know, Bog, I know. I love you, too, and I have since the day I found you.”

Before her tears can fall they share a desperate kiss, holding on as if the world would fall apart around them.

She is the first to hear the hounds, and pulls away from him, casting an anxious glance back to the shore. “Bog, it’s time…”

He takes a deep breath, clutching her shoulders, “Right.”

She walks backwards, guiding him further into the water, but their eyes don’t stray from the other’s.

A wave billows around her hips, her dress blossoming out around her, and even at her grave she is a holy sight to his eyes.

The rising water shackles him with cold, his wounds stinging anew, and wistfully one of his hands drops to the still-soft bump of her belly. _I’m sorry, wee one. Perhaps this is a mercy._ His head, he rests on her shoulder. “It was a lovely night, wasn’t it?”

Her hand cradles his neck and her voice is strained with shaky breath. “It was.” The hounds are closer and her other arm goes around him. “We’ll be together, won’t we?”

The river is to their chests now, already trying to choke him, and he lifts his head to kiss her again, “Aye. Together.”

They are both finally pulled under, neither letting go. For a single moment they feel frozen in time, the river granting them one last sweet second.

Their last breath, they share.

 

**_(our ghosts will wander all of the water)_ **


End file.
